Kim Possible: Another 'Sitch in Time
by eoraptor
Summary: DISCONTINUED; KP wakes up to a bad feeling. An 'old' friend visits her with some news that tilts her world. Can Kim adjust to life in a world where there are no supervillains, Ron and Rufus are gone, and Wade is married to her cousin?
1. Chapter 1

_**Kim Possible: Another Sitch in Time**_

By _Eoraptor_

Kim Possible and all related characters © Walt Disney Corporation 2002-2007. This work is not for profit and solely for the enjoyment of the audience. Rated PG-13 for language and adult content. Reproduction or distribution of this work without the author's consent prohibited.

**AN:** **This fic ignores the events of So the Drama and Season 4.** Your might see an occasional 'borrowed' plot point from S4, but in general; assume that Ron and Kim never admitted their feelings, Kim never fought Warmonga, and Shego never became Miss Go.

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"mmmmmrrrphhhhh…" She ran her fingers over her mouth. Her lips felt dry and rubbery, both to her fingers and her face.

Bright white light. That was never a good thing. That usually meant she was waking up in a hospital. Well, she was definitely sore all over. Her mouth was dry, so she'd probably had been given pain killers then. No good trying to remember anything now, in that case.

She waited for her vision to clear up a bit. Bright white light slowly began to resolve itself. Very slowly... Finally a few shapes began to form into matchsticks, and then into roughly people-shaped blobs.

"Miss Possible?"

Mmmmmmmppppphhhhhhh… Mmhmmm?"

"My name is doctor McCoy. Can I get you anything?"

'_funny name for a doctor… I bet he hears lots of jokes.'_

"Miss Possible? Can you hear me?" a light shaking on her shoulder.

"mmhmmm... water?"

A cool, but not cold, cup of water was pressed into her hand. She drank all of it down quickly, swishing the last bit in her mouth. As usual, they never gave you enough water to actually cut the thirst. Still, it helped.

Olive eyes blinked and things started to resolve just a little more. 'Dr. McCoy' began to solidify. He had a good amount of gray in his hair… Must be early to mid-fifties. He was sitting, but she could tell that he was in very decent shape, only a small gut was visible under his ubiquitous lab coat.

"Better?"

"Yes, thanks."

"Miss Possible. We have a few basic questions for you. I'm sure you're familiar with them. We just want to ensure you don't have any neurological trauma."

"Okay… shoot."

"Do you know your full name?"

"Kimberly Anne Possible."

"When is your birthday?"

"April third."

"What's today's date?"

Here was the tough one. How long was she out? Well, she could move everything, and she didn't feel _really_ weak, so couldn't be more than a few days. She took her best guess.

"July twenty-seventh."

"And the year?"

"2007"

"Okay… that about covers everything brain-wise. Any double vision, nausea, tingling in your extremities?"

"Nope, no big. So, my turn, how did I get here?"

"I- I think… I think I'll let someone else handle that… now please Miss possible, you've had a very big shock to your system… try not to panic, okay?"

Panic? Why would she panic? Okay, so she was in a hospital… it had been a few days… no drama, right?

Doctor McCoy motioned for someone to come in. It hurt to turn her eyes that far to one side, so she waited for the new person to come into her field of vision. Finally they did. They were moving a little slower, a little hunched over.

Hmmm, a black man. A big black man, actually. He looked like he'd been majorly muscled when he was younger. Despite carrying a cane, he didn't seem to lean on it very much, and he moved with confidence. There was silver and iron in his hair, what there was of it. His clothes were just a little odd though. Not what she was expecting. The man moved like a line-backer, but he was dressed expensively. The style of the suit was very modern, very posh… cutting edge even.

"Hey Kim… how are you feeling?"

He smiled warmly at her. He'd been crying, it looked like. His chocolate colored eyes were very bloodshot. But they seemed… familiar. Well, Dr. McCoy said he was going to let someone else tell her what was going on, so this must be the guy.

"Um… lil dry yet, Doctor. But okay I guess… not to beat up, right?"

"How did you know I was a…? Oh! You think I…!" He laughed softly and shook his head. He sat down next to her bed and patted her on the hand, squeezing it a bit.

She looked from his hand, which had thick, obviously arthritic knuckles, up to his eyes again. That was a very familiar gesture for a doctor. "I think you're the staff counselor here to give me some bad news. Am I wrong?"

"Well, yes and no Kim. I am here to give you some news… probably bad from your point of view. NO, I'm not from the Hospital though. Um, Doctor McCoy, could you go see how my wife is doing?"

"Of course Mr. Loade. I'll give you two kids a few minutes." He chuckled softly and exited before Kim could turn to consider him more.

'_Mister Loade?'_ Was this guy related to Wade? That would explain the eyes at least.

"Um… Okay. So, I guess it's your show then. Fill me in." She sat back in her bed a bit and studied the man closely. Lots of money. That's what the suit said; and the cane, which she could tell now was real ebony.

"Kim. Did Doctor McCoy ask you what year it was?"

"Mmhmm. It _is_ 2007, right? I didn't sleep through my first freshman semester I hope?" She sighed softly and shook her head. He wouldn't ask if it was '07. "I did, didn't I? Okay, what year is it Doctor Loade?"

"Well… Somewhere in the multi-verse, I suppose it's still 2007."

Olive eyes rolled irritably. She didn't need physics jokes right now, just answers. This guy was supposed to provide them. "Hardy har har. I can see where Wade gets his sense of humor from."

There seemed to be a blossom of sadness across the older man's face. She guessed he must be in his early sixties from the lines and the iron in his hair. Why was he sad? Oh no! Something must have happened to… That was why she was in here! Darn pain killers! She still couldn't remember why she was here specifically.

"Where's Wade? And Ron? Are they okay?!" Panic started to kreep into her voice now. Something must have gone wrong, horribly wrong.

"Kim… I'm sitting right in front of you. I'm…" The man took a deep, shuddering breath and ran a hand through his thinning hair. "It's me… I'm Wade."

"I mean _my_ Wade… Wade Junior?" She frowned firmly. She was getting what Ron called the freaky-wierdy feelings in her tummy. Wade wasn't a Junior… Who was _this_ Wade?

"I am… I _was_ your Wade. Kim… It's 2068. You've been in nano-cryonic suspension for fifty-nine years."

"Nano… Cryonic… I was…"

"Frozen. After a fashion." Doctor Loade shook his head and squeezed her hand.

"No… Not possible… so ferociously impossible!" Kim shook her head furiously, squeezing her eyes shit and trying to make the world go away. Something blinked in her brain. Basic math. "Sixty-eight minus fifty-nine is is nine, not seven! You're lying!"

He sighed again, a few more tears at the corners of his dark eyes. "No Kim, I'm not lying. You were in a coma for two years before your mom agreed to this."

She narrowed her eyes at him angrily. How deep would his lie go? "I see. Why, pray tell, was I in a coma for two years?"

"You don't remember, do you? That morning? Okay then… tell me the last thing you _do_ remember." 'Wade' sat back and rubbed the top of his cane, watching her eyes with concern.

She frowned and pursed her lips. She remembered… Darn! She didn't remember much. Kim started rubbing the bridge of her nose, concentrating as hard as she could.

"It's okay Kim… it'll come."

"I don't need help, thank you very much _Wade_." Her voice held venom, and maybe just a little uncertainty as she tried to think.

"I remember… We were in Massachusetts. Dad was taking me to Yale to tour the Law Library." She looked up. Yes, That was it. She was going to tour another darned school. "There was this really long highway, I wanted dad to take it so I could see some of the old farms.

'Wade' nodded in agreement with her assessment so far. He squeezed her hand again, but she pulled it away. Who was this man to keep touching her? Did Drakken hire him? Or Dementor? Was this a world-domination thing? Would Shego or giant mutant wiener-dogs pop out of the wall?

"Stop that. Anyways… So we're driving through the country… big winding roads… some forest… We came around a curve. Something was in the…" Kim started screaming suddenly, shrieking with no outward provocation as everything flooded back. "Dad! Look out! There's an Elk! Dad!!! NO!!!"

Kim threw her arms in front of her and assumed crash positions at the imagined sight of an animal dead over six decades. After a long moment, she slowly lowered them, trembling, and covered in sweat, her green eyes wide, pupils dilated as adrenaline flooded her system at the vision.

It… It wasn't true… It couldn't be! She tugged at the sheets, trying to pull them closer, trying to use them a shield against reality.

"I'm- I'm sorry Kim." Wade squeezed her hand again. Finally he leaned over and hugged her tightly. God he was just as strong as he looked. Finally, after several minutes, he moved back and sat down again.

"Wade… is my dad…?"

"He… He died at the scene Kim. You did too, actually, but they brought you back, twice that day. You were just so damned strong."

"But, the airbags?"

"Don't work so well at seventy-five miles per hour. Not when a four-hundred pound animal comes through your windshield." Wade squeezed her hand sharply, and sniffed slightly.

She gave a shuddering sigh, not wanting to accept it. Finally, her eyes still squeezed shut; she asked the next in what were probably going to be a long and horrible series of questions. "Where's Ron?"

"I… I don't think I should… not today." The elderly Wade looked away, obvious pain in his eyes.

Kim scowled. She reached over and squeezed his shoulder, leaning out of the bed. Then she shook him, sharply, surprising them both with her post-coma strength. "Darn it Wade! Where the heck is Ron?!"

"Dead. Three years ago, of a heart attack." Wade seemed to deflate completely at the admission. He wouldn't meet her gaze, even after the words sank in and she stopped shaking him.

"No…" it was a whisper. A trembling, shocked whisper.

She wanted to scream to whatever god there was that it wasn't real. Ron couldn't be dead. Her dad couldn't be dead. This couldn't be the future. But all she could do was hiss out one whisper before collapsing into a pool of tears in her bed.

Wade stayed with her for several hours. Finally, though, he had to leave. Visiting hours ended, and Kim showed no signs of coming around from whatever personal hell she was in. Doctor McCoy came back, and injected a sedative into her support system.

Kim fell quietly into slumber, despite her continued tears and trembling. No one had ever been woken up after this long in nanny-sleep, and he was hesitant to give her sleeping meds, but she'd cried for hour's non-stop. That couldn't be good for her either.

Out in the hallway, Wade and Dr. McCoy spoke quietly.

"I really wish you'd not told her about her friend. It was far too much. Maybe I should have called the sleeper counselor like I wanted."

"I'm sorry Doc. I couldn't _not_ tell her. I know you're not old enough to remember what she was like back then."

"Dr. Loade, how old do you think I am? I was six when Miss Possible was in her prime, yes, but I'm also very familiar with her psych and historical data."

"Okay. Then you know she is… was… the girl who could do anything. I thought she could take it. Besides, Ron was as much her brother as James or Tim, maybe more. She wouldn't have stopped asking until someone _did_ tell her."

"Well, you thought wrong. Telling her about her father had to be done, since the two of them were injured at the same time… but the rest could have waited."

"I know… now. But please, don't call those quacks. Kim is my friend. She deserves to hear about the world from her friends and family, not some shrink. Besides… are you saying BN's money is not good enough, or is my money not good enough?"

"No, Doctor Loade. The funding BN and you yourself gave us made her revival possible. Erm, no pun intended. I just don't want that hard work undone if she snaps and goes into cryocide."

"She's Kim Possible, Dr. McCoy. She's not going to drop dead because of her pain and suffering."

"She _was_ Kim Possible, sixty years ago. Now she's just a very scared eighteen year old girl who's woken up to a world where everyone she knew is either dead, or decidedly not the people she knew before her accident. She wouldn't be the first resilient person to suffer cryocide. Do you know how many Marines from Cuba II cryo'ed out when they woke up? _Marines_ Dr. Loade… people every bit as strong as Miss Possible ever was."

Wade just shook his head softly. Knowing Kim's data, and knowing Kim, were apparently two different things.

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Author's Notes Additional: And there you have it… the first chapter of _"Another 'Sitch in Time."_ Please don't expect this one to update as regularly as my other fics do. It's a lot deeper, perhaps deeper than _The Darkness Without. _Therefore, I'm going to take my time with it and get it all right.Please, questions and Comments are welcome, so Review Away!


	2. Chapter 2

_**Kim Possible: Another Sitch in Time**_

By _Eoraptor_

Kim Possible and all related characters © Walt Disney Corporation 2002-2007. This work is not for profit and solely for the enjoyment of the audience. Rated PG-13 for language and adult content. Reproduction or distribution of this work without the author's consent prohibited.

**AN:** **This fic ignores the events of So the Drama and Season 4.** Your might see an occasional 'borrowed' plot point from S4, but in general; assume that Ron and Kim never admitted their feelings, Kim never fought Warmonga, and Shego never became Miss Go.

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Kim woke up with a dry mouth yet again, and it made her curse out loud. A moment later she was glad that she was alone in the room; she didn't normally curse. Her cheeks flushed read and she covered her mouth self-consciously. What would her parents say if they heard her say 'Damn it all' like that?

She took up a plan of action when her foggy mind tried to insist where she was a moment later.

She simply couldn't be there, or then. No, this was still 2007… maybe 2008 at the latest. Her surroundings helped to reinforce her plans quite well. The nurses and CNA's who tended to her wore typical hospital togs. They also wore either casual non-slip shoes or what she took for 'crocs' style sandals. There was nothing that passed for a TV or radio in her room either, so she wasn't accosted by lying news-reporters or prerecorded feeds designed to warp her mind.

No, whoever was trying to mess with her head was not going to succeed.

Her vitals were taken by a small white thing clipped to her index finger. This wasn't so bizarre. They took oxygen readings and heart-rates like that at her mom's hospital, and GJE's stuff was even more advanced than that; she'd been checked out by them enough times to know that much.

The large window that let warm sunlight into her room faced out into a garden space. This meant the only people she saw outside were patients and staff; so hospital gowns, togs scrubs and gowns again. Nothing abnormal there. The breeze allowed in through the window helped clear her head as well.

Breakfast was normal, if slightly tastier than standard hospital fare. There were no protein pills or tube-paste space foods; just bland eggs, toast and jam, a grapefruit, coffee, milk, and water. She refused any more pain killers or sedatives, in pill or injected form, and earned a strenuous argument from the duty nurse.

She had very nearly succeeded in convincing herself of the reality of the situation when 'Wade' and his wife insisted on coming in and shattering her carefully erected delusion.

She pointedly ignored the big black man and his basso-profundo voice. Her Wade's voice was squeaky, and cracked often. He also wasn't built like an NFL lineman and he definitely didn't leave his room, let alone date girls, come to hospitals, or get married. So she ignored the obviously good actor and stared at her now empty breakfast plate.

It was Wade's wife who finally succeeded and shattered her dream world, by simply opening her mouth and removing any doubt whom she was with her voice. Kim had traveled the world, but only one woman spoke with that mixture of southern belle and mountain man, in her experience. One _girl_, actually.

"I hear ya'll are givin' the nurses a heck of a time there, cousin."

The woman was slender, tall, and elegant. Her voice, with its heavy twang, was fairly contrasting to her fairly expensive looking pants-suit and western-style blouse. But it was her eyes and hair that could, ultimately, not be refuted by Kim's fantasy. Though it was shot through with several strands of silver here and there, the hair was the same deep auburn she remembered the bean-pole having, and her eyes were still the same energetic sea-green that bore a shade more blue than Kim's own.

"J-…. No… not you're not! Who hired you?! This is so ferociously cruel! It has to be Shego and Drakken!" Kim clung to her dreams of normalcy. Well, being kidnapped, drugged, and messed with was normal for her if not the rest of the world. She rubbed her arms and clung to herself as well as her enforced vision of normalcy.

Wade and Joss Loade both frowned concernedly. Joss sat down on the edge of Kim's bed and Wade resumed his chair as he had yesterday. "Kim, look around. Look at Wade. Ya'll really think this is one of that tin-horn's things?"

Kim bit her lower lip. She refused to look at the actress's eyes. She instead turned to the fake Wade. She scoweled when she saw the eyes of a certain prodigy child hacker staring out of a post-middle-aged head. She hated the truth those brown eyes spoke, and she hated making her self look up at the tall woman. "Darn it! No! Ron's not dead! You're not my dorky little cousin! And you're not WADE! You're not… you're just not…"

Even as she tried to force the words out in a scream, she faltered. Joss moved and leaned in, hugging her tightly, rubbing her back with calloused hands and sighing against her. Kim's voice faded to a tremble as the unavoidable truth finally settled in and made itself comfortable in her mind.

It was helped along a moment later when the window that had been letting the breeze in closed itself, and suddenly became what must be an eighty inch TV screen. Doctor McCoy was there. Wherever 'there' was at the moment. "Is everything all right Doctor Loade? Kim's vitals are through the roof."

Kim had seen very large display screens before. She'd never, however, seen an average window change into one. She just kept shaking her head, trembling against the now much older woman and reluctantly wrapping her arms around her in return.

"Yes Dr. McCoy, everything is fine… Kim's just… a little strung out coming to terms."

Kim growled, breaking away from the adult Joss and glared at the window/screen. Her head and vision were already swimming with a redheaded fury. Her skin glistened with sweat that seemed to have come from nowhere and her olive green eyes flashed with confusion and anger.

"Why did you freaking wake me up? Why didn't you just let me die?! I'd be with my dad now, and Ron! And everyone else! Damn it why didn't you- hurkt!!!"

Alarms all around the room started sounding out in various tones as Kim clutched at her chest through the thin hospital gown. Wade was on his feet and over to her side, pushing her back to the bed as Joss leapt away.

On the window, Kim's physician was scowling. "Damn it! Code Blue! She's going into cryocide!" He winked out from the window which suddenly changed again, and displayed Kim's vitals, which did not look good.

Once Wade had forced Kim, who was now convulsing in a hideous manner, back down onto her bed, he took a step back. Men and women rushed into her room, but none of them made a move towards her yet. Kim's lips were turning blue now and her olive-hued eyes had rolled back into her head as her mouth lolled open.

Joss bit her lip as Kim's entire body suddenly stiffened, and then went slack. It happened again a moment later. After a moment, the readings on the window/screen began to stabilize, though she knew enough to know they were still ugly. Kim's body gave a smaller convulsion, the bed's systems shocking her one last time to prevent her slipping back into cardiac infarction.

The hospital staff now closed in around the bed, checking her with various instruments and shaking their heads. Not one of them had ever seen someone come back from the edge of cryocide. A younger medical technitian said as much as he watched the window's readings slowly come into a slightly more healthy range. Yet here was the evidence; Kim's vitals began stabilizing, and her lips slowly returned from deathly blue back towards their natural pink.

"That there's Kim Possible for ya… She can do anything…" Joss smiled proudly despite the concern that deepened the lines around her eyes. She wrung craggy work-worn hands and moved next to her husband, sighing heavily with reliefe.

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_Sir Ronald David Stoppable_

_Dame Elizabeth Smyth-Stoppable_

_SSGT Gerald Rufus Stoppable_

Kim recognized the first name on the mausoleum door, and the last was also familiar in its way. Seeing them, etched in brass with dates next to each, didn't make things any more or less real for her personally. Yet it was more evidence that she was where she was, the latter half of the twenty-first century.

It was a little more than two weeks since her wakeup call at the cryo-stasis wing of Upperton Memorial Hospital. Physically, she was fit as a fiddle; so they had released her into the care of 'Doctor and Mrs. Loade.'

'Doctor' Wade, Ph. D., had explained to her that she was a miracle of modern medical technology. She'd awoken from the nanny-cryo thing after being there almost twice as long as the next 'oldest' person. She was also the only person to have come back from the brink of something called cryocide.

"_People sometimes can't take all the changes from when they went to sleep to when they wake up… So they just lose the will to live… they kill themselves, and yet they don't. That's why they call it cryocide; cause it's a semi-conscious choice, not a medical condition. Sometimes I expresses as a heart attack, sometimes a stroke, sometimes organ failure, or self-starvation, but ultimately, there's no outward physical cause."_

That was how he'd explained the odd term. She still didn't really understand how someone could just will themselves to death, but apparently she nearly had. Well, she felt better now, though her heart still fluttered sometimes when she saw something familiar. It had actually made her chest hurt when she saw the old Middleton Events Center; where she had graduated, along with Ron, Monique, and everyone else from Middleton High class of '07.

"Sir Ronald… When was Ron knighted? And who…?" Kim's slender fingers slowly trailed along the edges of the brass plaque that held the name of her best friend since pre-K. It was the most recent in an incessant line of questions that day, questions which had prompted the visit to the mausoleum.

Joss smiled and squeezed Kim's shoulder lightly. Kim's previous question had been about why Ron was in a largely Christian cemetery when he was Jewish. She'd been shocked to learn that the boy who had nearly died of shock at his bar-mitzvah certificate not being signed had converted to the Anglican Church when he got married in 2013.

"Awe hun, let's sit down. I know its lots to take in." Joss led them to a small bench across from the small but ornate granite structure. After they sipped their bottled waters, (yes there was still bottle water in the future) Joss pointed to the structure that presumably held the mortal remains of Ron and his immediate family.

"Ronny was knighted by tha' there William in… Oh I think it was thirty-two. Tha's twenty thirty-two of course, cuz." Joss chuckled again.

It had been a little strange, seeing themselves reflected in a store window earlier that morning. Kim was still an eighteen year old girl physically, even though her legal age was… well, substantial. Joss, her 'little' cousin, was seventy three, and had already been mistaken twice for a grand-mother. Well, to Kim, not that she actually also wasn't one in reality as well.

"He an' Elizabeth an' Wade saved one of the princesses' lives when that Abbey thing burned down. Wade's a Knight too, but he hates it. He wouldn't even let me put 'Defender o' tha Crown' on his business cards." Joss chuckled and Kim just shook her head.

After the middle of the first week, Kim had found herself completely cried out. Tears no longer came so easily at being caught by news that someone she knew was dead. And sadly, there was a lot of that kind of news. Still, Wade and Joss seemed to keep as much from her as they told her and it was starting to ware her nerves down.

"They stayed on in the world-saving stuff huh?" Kim smiled proudly. She had wondered if things like that would continue for Wade and Ron while she was 'gone.' This was the first confirmation of it.

"Oh, it got slower over the years, but yeah, up till he turned fifty Ron was still goin' out once in a blue moon. Els' put a stop to that though when the big five'oh came around."

"Els'?" Kim parroted confusedly. Then she remembered the second name on the list, and a tear did form and cloud her vision. "That was Elizabeth, his wife?"

A part of her had always thought she and Ron were going to end up together, even though neither of them ever talked about it. It was… well there wasn't a word in the English language for what it felt like, so she went with disconcerting. It was disconcerting to learn that Ron had moved on with his life after her, gotten married and…

"Who was Staff Sergeant Gerald Rufus Stoppable?" Kim knew she didn't _want_ to know the answer. And yet at the same time she _had to know_ what her best friend's life had been like after she'd left.

Yes, it was easiest to say she left… She hadn't died, and she hadn't slept. If she'd died it would all be so much easier, but Wade had actually smacked her the first time she said that after her aborted cryocide. So she didn't think or say that any more. Also, people didn't just _sleep_ for fifty-nine years. So she hadn't been asleep either. She'd just 'left.'

Joss's face darkened and the lines around her eyes deepened. Kim was still shocked that she was in her seventies, and so was Wade. She tried not to think that she herself was legally turning eighty in a few months. Joss, though, certainly didn't _look_ like she was creeping up on three quarters of a century. She could easily pass for fifty. Then again, Wade had said to her a few days ago that fifty was the new thirty.

"Gerry was killed in the Second Cuban War… Just like… Awwe darn it, I'm not s'posed to tell ya bout all this stuff yet." Joss cussed in her own special way and gave Kim a reluctant look. "Promise you won't go all cryo'y on me if'n I tell ya a lil more than I'm s'posed to?"

"Pixie Scouts honor! Oh wait, do they still have those?" Kim blinked a bit embarrassedly at her eagerness to learn more and her display of being so out of date.

"All right… but if'n Wade asks, ya'll tortured this outta me and left me beaten and bloodied, got it?" Joss's sea-green eyes were still sad as she nodded, but they held a hint of the old playful spark in them that Kim remembered so well. "I'll hold ya to that ya'know. I might need ya to punch yer old granny if'n he asks. Need a right good shiner to convince him."

Kim laughed a little bit, despite the somber nature of the info she'd asked about. Believing her boney little cousin was a grandmother was hard enough. Believing that she'd been married to Wade for over half a century still made Kim dizzy. She held up a fist, promising the mother of all blacked eyes if it came to that. "Scouts honor!"

Her older companion sighed and chuckled, and then sat back. "Ya'll know there was two Cuban Wars, right? Well, Gerry was drafted by the time of the second one, despite Ron's whatchamacallit status."

"Conscientious Objecter?"

"Yah, that's the one. Anyways… He was on General Barkin's command staff at Havanna when…" She trailed off as though this was something every school child knew. It was, if they'd graduated _after_ 2043, which Kim had not.

"…when?" Kim motioned for her elderly cousin to continue, trying to remind her that she had slept though major global events. Then her mind grasped something in what Joss had said. "Wait, General Barkin? General STEVE Barkin?"

"Ya. That big old galloot. Ronny said ya'll knew him, and tha' that was the only reason he let Gerry go instead o' callin in every favor he had. Well, Havana was where we dropped the Hydrogen Bomb. It was in response to the massacre of Barkin's entire compound, some fourteen-hundred soldiers and civilians, by a chemical attack. It was horrible cuz… it was some nasty skin eatin gas!"

Joss trailed off as something that was news to Kim was a renewed, very painful and personal memory to her. Kim rested a supporting palm on her shoulder and sighed. She'd have to find out more about this Cuba thing; especially if it killed so many people and caused a nuclear war.

She hated to ask more, because of the tears in Joss's eyes, but she wanted to hear this, not read it or get it from some news report. "Ron's son was killed? In that attack thing? Or in the bomb?"

"He died in the chemical attack. Ron went insane. Who could blame him. If Yori hadn't been there with us at the funeral, he would have… Well Cuz, I never did understand what it was all about, but he got 'hold of somethin' called the Lotus Blade. Yori told me an Wade that Ron had almost 'Defiled himself an' tha' blade.' Whatever that meant."

Kim swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. She knew exactly what Yori's words meant. She didn't want to think about what Ron "Monkey Master" Stoppable could and probably would have done in such a state. He was dangerous when his powers came out. Yori had probably saved more lives than she knew. She and Joss sat for a few minutes in the daytime sun under the tree and watched the mausoleum in silence.

"So that's why his name is there huh? Did Ron and Elizabeth have any other children?" Kim wasn't sure she wanted to know. Ron was Kim's age, older than Joss; and Kim didn't think she could handle actually meeting her BFF's children… and _grandchildren_.

"Naw… Gerry was all they could have. Elizabeth didn't do so hot in child birthin'. She didn't have tha hips for it." Joss shook her head softly. Then she turned to Kim and chuckled. "Ya'll woulda liked her. She was an English girl, but everyone thinks she was a lot like you. Now I never did see why, cept'n maybe cause she had green eyes… and lordy only knows she wasn't a Possible like'n us. But she did go on missions with him till Gerry came 'long. She always was sayin something bout _'ah Smythe was on tha Victory at Trafalgar'_ or something like that."

Kim laughed openly despite the heaviness of learning about Ron's family history over the last sixty years. First she laughed at her heavily accented cousin trying to sound like the proper/improper English lady that Elizabeth was being presented as. Joss still had that proud streak in her that Kim denied having in herself, and Kim could tell that Joss doubted anyone held a torch to the Possible's in her opinion.

After a moment chuckling at shared familial pride, Kim wiped her eyes and smiled. She had happier topics, at least, to ask about now. "How did they meet Joss? I mean, Ron and some girl from 'across the pond?'"

Joss, wiping her own eyes and sharing Kim's chuckles, pursed her lips for a moment. Finally she shook her head. "Naw… I dun told ya way too much today, more 'an I was supposed to. Wade can tell ya more bout them anyways. He knew 'er a few years before he an' I hitched up."

Kim tried to work her infamous Puppy-dog Pout on Joss the rest of the afternoon, but it just didn't work out so well on a woman like Joss, a Possible with a familial immunity. So she was forced to wait until Doctor Wade Loade came back to the hotel they were staying at to find out about Dame Elizabeth Anne Smythe-Stoppable.

-----

Author's notes additional: Sorry it took so long, but here you go, some Chapter Two, a lil bit about the world of the late 21st century…. It's more dystopian than you think, and many surprises are in store for Kim as she adjusts to life without most of her family, without Ron and Rufus, and with a married Joss and Wade.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Kim Possible: Another Sitch in Time**_

By _Eoraptor_

Kim Possible and all related characters © Walt Disney Corporation 2002-2007. This work is not for profit and solely for the enjoyment of the audience. Rated PG-13 for language and adult content. Reproduction or distribution of this work without the author's consent prohibited.

**AN:** **This fic ignores the events of "So the Drama" and Season 4.** Your might see an occasional 'borrowed' plot point from S4, but in general; assume that Ron and Kim never admitted their feelings, Kim never fought Warmonga, and Shego never became Miss Go.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Tears rolled down Kim's cheeks as she rocked back and forth on her bed in the hotel suite. She was inconsolable, and felt like a grade-A bitch as she sat on the bed, sobbing and rocking. Joss and Wade were sitting with her, gently holding her and doing all those soothing things you do for a person who can't be made to feel better easily.

It had all started when she'd come back to the hotel with Joss, intent on asking Wade all about Ron's wife and son and all the things they had done. She'd sat down and decided to actually work out a little list of the things she wanted to know, in a relatively reasonable order to ask them since some questions depended heavily on the answers to others.

Then she came to the question about Ron's mysterious reappearance at the Possible Family Thanksgiving one year and it had all hit her. "Grandma" Joss had mentioned Ron had disappeared for a few years starting in 2009, and had shown up, Elizabeth in tow, at Thanksgiving at her family's house a couple years later.

Kim wanted to ask more about that specific event and why Ron had gone "off grid" for a few years when her brain, as it was wont to do, went off on a tangent. In a painful moment in which she suddenly felt like the worst human being since Adolf Hitler, Kim realized that not once in three weeks had she asked or even thought about her mother, her brothers, or any member of her family at all; only about Ron and his family, and occasionally about Wade and Joss's relationship.

"I suck!" she sobbed, leaning against Wade's chest and whimpering softly, not bothering to do the breathing exercises the hospital had given her to combat Croycidical symptoms. "I'm such a horrible person! I never should have been brought back!"

The elderly, iron-haired black man signed softly and rubbed her back as Joss got up to fetch something from her hand-held that might help with all of this. He'd known this was coming for a while now, and he also knew that the things that they had to tell Kim might break her heart, if not kill her out-right. He wondered if he should perhaps lie about some of them.

"And what about daddy's grave!? Where is it even at?!" She wailed and buried her tear-stained face into Wade's lapel further.

He sighed, not able to really understand what she was going through, but sympathizing with her horrendous pain. He continued rubbing her back and letting her occasionally pounder her fists on him in frustration, trying to keep her at least a little comforted, for her own protection.

Joss returned with her handheld, and showed it to Wade over Kim's shoulder.

The handheld was a ubiquitous device in 2061, so far as Kim could tell. It was descended from items like cell phones, and her Kimmunicator, and it was largely how Wade had made his fortune. Part communications device, part hand-held computer, part debit card; it was a small device that did it all and did it seamlessly.

At the moment the flexible transparent screen of Joss's was displaying a list of facts Kim was to be told at certain times during her recovery. It was a list Joss had not been sticking very close to at all, much to Wade's dismay. Ironically, and sadly, the next items displayed on the list were the disposition of Kim's mother and brothers, although they were dated for a week or so in the future yet.

"Should we share this with her?" were the words Joss mouthed to Wade as she settled her long frame on the edge of the bed.

Wade took the device from her and ran his thumb along the flexible film screen, causing it to scroll. He frowned at the items there, especially Kim's mother. He didn't want to tell her about Anne yet, or in fact, at all. He wasn't sure how Kim would react to knowing her mother was still around, after a fashion.

The old man especially didn't want her going to see the woman and being_ really_ crushed. If anything could kill Kim Possible via heartache, it would be that.

Other things on the list were just as bad. So much of it was tied up in Cuba II that he wondered if Maybe Kim should just be given her own hand-held access and allowed to study up on the Second Cuban War herself.

After a long moment, Wade shook his head and patted Kim atop hers. Then as he strolled down the list, he came to one thing that he thought might cheer the girl up. She wasn't supposed to meet that person for two months yet, but Kim was obviously in need of input from people other than just Joss and Wade.

He turned the list to face his wife of fifty-one years, and pointed to a name as he mouthed back to her, "Call her…"

As Joss Loade stepped into the other room of Kim's suite, Wade softly sat her up and looked her in her fern-colored eyes, giving her shoulders a small shake. "Now you listen to me Kimberly Anne Possible,"

After a moment of sniffling she nodded, tears still running down her cheeks. She bit her lower lip and tried to calm herself enough to pay attention. Finally she nodded again, the look of shock and deep shame still on her face though.

"You are NOT a horrible person. You're in a very awkwierd 'sitch that no one has ever been in before; if you don't count biblical anecdotes, okay?" He eyed her with a firm, but kind expression and waited for her to agree.

"…b-but…"

"No buts. No one could blame you for being a little addle-headed considering what you went through. I told you already, you're the first person to wake up after more than half a century. The next person before you was only frozen for about seventeen years. Most people can't survive longer than that without going all cryo…" He sighed and wiped a few of her tears away from her chin before the could drip off. "Don't you remember being told about your head injuries? And just who do you imagine could think clearly after waking up over a half-century in the future with a massive head wound?"

Kim tried to object, but in the face of his determined but loving expression she couldn't. An elk had kicked her in the head sixty one years ago, and then she'd been in a deep freeze. She touched her left temple self-consciously, as though she could feel the hoof-print there. He was right, much as she didn't want to admit it. It wasn't her fault if she didn't think of things in their proper order all of the time.

Finally, salty drops still staining her reddened cheeks, she nodded and leaned in again against the big old man's chest. She listened to his steady breathing and the echo if his deep baritone as he spoke again.

"Good girl. Now, in a few minutes Joss is going to have a very nice surprise for you… but you _have_ to promise your 'Grandpa Wade' that you won't over-react… okay? Maybe in the morning we can talk about your family some… but right now you're too worked up. So you can have ten minutes on the hand-held, then it's off to bed young lady."

Kim giggled softly through her sniffles at being treated like some little girl, despite the fact that she was, at least physically, college aged. The coddling, at least at this moment, made her feel a little better. "Okay… Grandpa."

Wade looked up as Joss motioned to him that she had made the connection. If Wade's implantable hearing aide didn't have smart-sound technology in it; the squeal from Kim a moment later would have permanently deafened him.

-----

At first, Kim didn't understand who she was supposed to be talking to. When Joss gave her the hand-held, she was confronted with a person who could, conservatively, be called the stereotypical African-american grandmother. Plump, friendly seeming, and with a warm twinkle in her dark watery eyes, the elderly woman smiled to Kim from a location identified on the hand-held as Coopersmith Springs, NSW, AU.

Well, she certainly didn't know anyone from rural Australia, old, young, black, white or by any description actually. Australia was one place she'd actually not spent a lot of time during her heroing days. The weathered, slightly shaky voice that came across the handheld also didn't ring any bells, so to speak. The sounds of non-descript street traffic, and a few children playing in the background filtered through the call to Kim, and totally failed to help her to place the caller's identity, since she was still operating under the assumption that everyone she knew was in their late teens, and not their late seventies.

So it took more than a moment or two of polite, yet confused smiling for the words the grandmother spoke to penetrate Kim's stressed red head.

"Hey there girlfriend… long time no see!"

Kim was busy looking at the background of the caller's location, a porch looking out on a sunny early afternoon, and still smiling with mild befuddlement when something deep in her mind clicked in place. Then the squeals of sheer joy and overwhelming emotion came.

"Monique!!! Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod!!! Your still alive!!! Ahhhhh! And you have Grandkids!!! Aieeee!!!"

Wade, on whose lap Kim was still sitting, grunted softly and coughed as Kim bounced up and down on him and almost dropped the hand-held. Despite the way she was acting at the moment, Kim was almost 19 years old and weighed every bit of it as she practically vibrated in her elderly friend's lap.

Mo's eyes sparkled softly and she chuckled, watching from her end as Wade grimaced and tried to get Kim to either calm down or get off of him; and Kim acted like she'd just experienced five Christmas mornings plus Halloween all at once.

"G/F… you better get off your grandpa Wade before you break him." She gently admonished the bouncing ball of energy that Kim had become, smiling broadly and shaking her head on the thin screen.

"Yes, please Kim, you're going to ruin my chance at having children if you don't stop bouncing." Wade and Monique laughed openly and Kim turned three shades of crimson as she rolled off of Wade and the bed and started half-jogging around the room in her excitement.

"Where are you? What are you doing? What have you been up to? Whose grandchildren are those? DO you still work at CB? What ever happened to-,"

"Whoa… slow down there Cinnamon! One at a time…" Monique laughed softly at the barrage of excited questions and appeared to be rocking slowly in an old wooden rocking chair as she listened to Kim. "Look at the display of the hand-held. That will tell you where I am… duh."

"Oh yea… duh me…" Kim managed to turn a shade darker red yet in energetic embarrassment and took a few forced deep breaths, trying to relax herself a bit. "Um… okay, so why are you down under?"

Monique's snow-white topped head gave her a look she was used to getting these days. It was a look that asked where she had been, and/or why she had dropped out of the eighth grade and didn't know basic geo-politics. After a moment though, the elderly woman caught herself making the face and shook her head a bit. "Sorry KP… I forget that you've been asleep and living in a hospital setting."

A groan of ascent rolled through Kim's throat and she nodded exasperatedly. "Yeah, tell me about it Mo.. Grandma and Grandpa here won't even let me watch TV."

That earned a chuckle from Monique and she shook her head softly once more. She looked over Kim's shouder, at Joss, who was hovering in the background, before continuing. "Well Kim, I guess you haven't had your history refreshers yet. But I guess I can tell you about that when you fly me out there this weekend huh?"

"Oh, okay! Huh what? Mo… How can I afford to fly you trans-oceanic…?" Kim was suddenly looking befuddled, confused, and faintly panicky.

"Oh ho… they haven't told you how much you're actually worth, have they girlfriend? Or should I call you 'Money'?" She winked at the thoroughly turned-around Kim and chuckled gently.

"How much I'm…" Kim turned to Wade and Joss, who were still following her energetic self around, and slowly narrowed her emerald eyes suspiciously, "No… they haven't."

"Miss Monique! I told ya'll not to be tellin' her about that!" Joss huffed, more of her cowgirl accent coming out in her pained distress as she shook a finger at the phone.

"Monique… is it okay if I call you back? I think Grandma, Gramps, and I need to have a little talk." Kim narrowed her still teary, blood-shot eyes accusatorily at her old friends and sniffed away the last vestiges of her earlier breakdown. She turned and advanced on them with a dangerous and irritated sneer curling her lips. "So… just how much _am_ I worth?"

If Joss and Wade had ever been afraid of someone not a quarter their age, it was now.

-----

Meanwhile… In another part of America, a raven-haired young woman was a little bit confused. She'd just gotten a printed letter from someone she barely knew. She vaguely remembered having met Dr. Loade several years before, when her mom had taken her to visit her grandfather. Still, why was he sending old fashioned paper mail to her?

Icey blue eyes carefully studied the expensive looking envelope as she rolled it from one hand to the other, hefting and testing its weight. She momentarily compared the soft white of the envelope to her alabaster skim, pondering the two tones before snapping out of her distraction.

A better question to ask was perhaps why it seemed to follow her only other piece of paper postage that week; an anonymous note that was asking for a meeting and promising information of Grandpa Harold and his early days as well. Not that she wasn't curious about why people claiming to know both of her grandfathers were sending her communications, it just seemed very _very_ convenient.

Now she wasn't sure just which one to attend to first.

Linnea Stoppable carefully peeled open the envelope and unfolded the thick multi-part letter, curiosity getting the better of her. It seemed like things were getting much more interesting for the young reporter.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Kim Possible: Another Sitch in Time**_

By _Eoraptor_

Kim Possible and all related characters © Walt Disney Corporation 2002-2007. This work is not for profit and solely for the enjoyment of the audience. Rated PG-13 for language and adult content. Reproduction or distribution of this work without the author's consent prohibited.

**AN:** **This fic ignores the events of "So the Drama" and Season 4.** Your might see an occasional 'borrowed' plot point from S4, but in general; assume that Ron and Kim never admitted their feelings, Kim never fought Warmonga, there was no Hana Stoppable, and Shego never became Miss Go.

_It's been a few months since the last update; you might want to refresh yourself on the previous chapters before continuing. Thank you for your patience._

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

The Loade-Possible household had a rough night that night. Kim had another cryo-related issue; but since she simply refused to die, Wade was now calling them cryo-infarctions. Between her initial emotional state over her family, and then the excitement of talking to Monique, who promised to come see her that very weekend, and in finally finding out that she was worth somewhere in the high eight figures; Kimberly just couldn't handle it.

About nine o'clock that night Kim collapsed in a minor seizure that almost gave Joss a heart-attack. The rest of the long night was spent by a highly frazzled Wade trying to comfort both women, and himself. Finally, early in the morning, they managed to settle down to a fitful sleep.

"We have to start sticking to the schedule more carefully hon… Kim can't take it, and I'm beginning to wonder about you too." Wade squeezed his wife's hands as they sat across the brunch table after waking up late.

"Awwwe Pudgy… I know… I just had to tell her 'bout Ronnie's family though. I didn't 'spect her to get all wound up 'bout her own too." Joss's sea colored eyes were bloodshot from the short night's sleep, and she sighed as she sipped her coffee.

"Yeah… and I didn't expect Monique to spill the beans about her money either, that didn't help. I guess we're both at fault here." The big dark man shook his head softly and sighed.

"Well doll, ya'll couldn't have 'spected any of this, not no more than the rest of the world. Kim is Kim… Ron said that back when ya'll were getting started on this whole revival thing." She squeezed her husband's hand softly and sipped her coffee again, smiling warmly. "Everyone knows anything's Possible for a Possible. An it's only gonna get rougher from here, hon. Ah know she can handle it though, an' so can we."

Wade sighed softly and gave her a weary smile, "Yeah… I suppose so. I just wish he could have been here for her when she woke up."

"Well, Doc' dun told him to lay off those darn nacos of his." Joss chuckled sadly, sniffing back one small tear that threatened to fall into her mug. "Asides… you think Kim'd listened ta him that morning she woke up any more 'an she listened to you?"

"Maybe hon… Ron was one of the few people Kim ever listened to. Remember when she insisted on trying to charge in to Dementor's mountain stronghold to recover the Pan-dimensional Vortex Inducer?"

"Second or third time?"

The elderly programmer chuckled a bit and shook his head, "Third, I think… Anyways, Ron was the only one who could get her to slow down for five seconds and notice the laser grid and the trap-trap-trap."

"Oh yeah! Ah remember her tellin' me about that. I thought she was gonna kiss him or something when they came to the ranch an' she told that story." A warm smile of memory spread over Joss's face as she thought back. "Why they never got hitched up I'll never understand."

"Oh, like you never wanted Ron for yourself, Miss photo-bug. Wondering why they never got together like that? Sure you were…" Smirking and shaking his head, Wade finally took a sip of his own coffee, "It was like a sitcom with those two… I think Kim was waiting for some kind of sign, and Ron just never felt worthy of her that way."

"And you didn't want Cous' either?" Joss matched her husband's smirk with her own and shook her salt-and-cinnamon hair out. "Ah remember a certain husky little nerd's hidden picture files… triple encrypted they were."

Wade's charcoal skin took on a very faint pink and he chuckled, "I never should have taught you how to hack. But I think those two were sort of fated to be together… neither of us would have stood a chance with our little adolescent crushes. Besides, that's sixty plus years gone… and I'm very happy with the Possible woman I did win."

Joss laughed softly and leaned over, pecking her husband of fifty-one years on the lips softly. "Ya'll darned well better be! If you never taught me how to get in ta' computers, ya'll never would have found out 'bout Electronique's super-worm; and we never woulda ended up in that stock room that night." she winked playfully, "…an' remember, Ah can still whoop your butt if'n you start making googely eyes at a certain college girl."

"Making eyes at who?" A sleepy Kim finally made her way into the hotel suite's dining area from their conjoined rooms, led more by her coffee-hunting nose than by her bloodshot eyes or burning ears. She felt very haggard after her night, and weaker than usual thanks to the seizure and the meds that had followed it. Caffeine was needed badly.

"Oh! Ahem... good morning Kim!" Wade coughed and his dark cheeks took on even more rose tint as he looked anywhere but at the girl they had just been discussing. "Erm… just someone we both knew a while ago."

Jocelyn Loade eyed her husband wryly, wondering just how much the zombified Kim had heard or understood; she tried to resist the urge to needle Wade. "Coffee's on the warmer plate, cousin. There's continental breakfast too if'n ya'll dun want to wait to go out to lunch."

"Mmmrphh… lunch… but soon…" Kim managed to mumble around the mug already pressed to her lips. "I need to go out and get a dress or something anyways. If Monique is coming back in to town I need to at least pretend to be up on the fashions of the twenty-sixties."

-----

"Pudgy, have ya'll heard from Linny yet?"

Wade chuckled at his wife's pet name for him, even though he hadn't been considered 'pudgy' in decades. He shook his head slightly as they waited for Kim to come out of the dressing room. If they didn't hurry, they'd miss Monique's flight… four days and Kim still hasn't found an outfit she liked.

"No…" he sighed after a moment, again looking at his antique watch. Who wore wrist watches anymore, aside from an old fuddy duddy like Dr. Wade Loade? "I'm starting to wonder if maybe Harold didn't send her off on another story lead, but the post office said she signed for the letter a week ago."

"Ah swear, you an your 'letters!' Ya'll coulda just called like a normal person. And shame on her grandpa fer sendin' her out to relive his heroin' days like that!"

"Well, it's a reporter's life, hon. Harold and the other boys had a lot of adventures, and the public just eats that stuff up these days. You remember how well Kim's show did, and that was forty years ago. She still get's merchandising royalties, and Ron had to turn down a movie offer or two a while back, rest his soul."

Joss shook her head a bit and also stared at Wade's watch before continuing, "Well, Ah hope she decides to come see Kim. Cousin could use meetin' someone her own age."

"Or close to… Remember, Linnea is twenty-five, hon; Kim's only eighteen."

Kim finally stepped out of the booth, nervously doing a turn for 'grandma and grandpa' in her chosen outfit. "Well?"

"Ah dun believe it! Sixty Years and she still manages to find mission gear!" Joss clapped her hand lightly over her mouth to hide a pleasantly startled chuckle.

Wade stared, dumbfounded, as Kim turned. The cut of the outfit was a little different, but he could easily be looking at one of his old pictures and not a living, breathing Kim Possible. Black officer-style turtleneck, hidden-pocket khaki-colored cargo pants, and she'd even managed to find black fingerless gloves; which just happened to be back in style at the moment. A splash of color was provided by the red "winder" holding her hair in a loose pony tail, and the red metallic belt buckle on the military-style belt she'd picked out.

Kim mistook the boggled expression on Wade's face for disapproval and sighed, turning to go back in. "No good huh? Darn it!"

"N-no… No Kim, it's great! It's just…" Wade fumbled for words, trying to let her know what seeing her looking that way was like. "It's kind of a shock to see you… dressed like that… just like the old days."

The redhead blinked curiously, and then turned to look at herself in the full-length mirror, "Oh…! Oh gosh! I didn't realize! I'll change! I'm sorry!"

"Cousin, Wade and I think its fine… it's just a lil surprisin' is all…" Joss finally interjected after her mate had been sputtering for a few seconds and Kim was on the verge of retreating again to the dressing room and trying for the umpteenth time to find an outfit. "An besides… we ain't got time fer you to try more clothes."

The elderly woman rose and rested a hand on her shorter, younger cousin's shoulder, smiling softly, "Now, let's go already, huh?"

Kim blinked a bit confusedly as Joss and Wade just walked out, and then she remembered that there weren't any such things as cash registers in this store. The role of sales associate had long since been replaced by attendants who helped you pick out outfits, refolded items and stocked shelves, but couldn't once tell you how to make change for a twenty if they tried. You just touched your 'com to a bar on the wall when you entered and anything you left with was charged to your personal account automatically.

Of course Kim's 'account' happened to contain eighty-nine-point-three million dollars, so it wasn't like she'd be taxing her piggy bank, even if she decided to leave with half the store rather than just the one outfit.

There was a faint but audible beep as they exited the store, letting Kim know that her "purchase" had been registered correctly, and she just shook he head. Would the wonders of modern convenience never cease?

-----

As it was, Joss, Kim, and Wade arrived just in time to meet a heavy set, elderly black woman in a vibrant red and blue sun dress coming out of the debarkation area. Kim yelped softly when she saw how green Monique looked and ran up to her, "You look horrible Mo, was the flight that bad!?"

Monique LaRey Jenkins Browne Renton, for her part, was stuck in an awkward spot. Her mind was reeling from the sight before her, a girl sixty years out of time; while at the same time, her stomach was complaining about the ninety seven minute flight from Canberra to Upperton, especially the zero-G portion. After a long moment of being looked at concernedly by Kim, she managed to get herself under control, save for the tears rolling down her worn, leathery cheeks. "Ooooh! Look at you girlfriend! Just look at you! Never in my life have I seen…"

Kim found herself seized up in a surprisingly strong hug and swung around slightly by her now elderly and heavyset best friend. She giggled eagerly, relishing in being spun about and hugging tightly back. "No! Look at you! You look just like meema LaRey!"

Monique gave the redhead a playfully offended look, setting her down again and looking to Wade and Joss, "You let her run around insulting her elders like that? I don't look a day over twenty!"

Joss snickered and Wade rolled his eyes slightly. Of all the old gang, the years had been most telling on Monique. She looked a lot closer to her full eighty years than she cared to admit, with her heavy set body and alabaster hair dyed to its once natural black.

By the twinkle in Joss's ocean green eyes, it was clear that the auburn haired woman was on the verge of correcting the thrice-grandmother on her appearance.

"I swear… you women are impossible." Monique cut Mrs. Loade off with a chiding glance and word.

"Monique! Are you going senile!? It's pronounced _Kim_ Possible!"

"Little Girl! I _know_ you did not just say that to me."

The redhead stuck her tongue out at her elderly friend. The now much heavier woman mimicked the childish gesture and laughed loudly. Joss and Wade watched the years literally melt from the senior's face and caught a ghostly glimpse of the slender, fashionable teenager Kim still saw through her colored memories. It was a disorienting, strange sensation to suddenly see the eyes of an eighteen year old girl peering from the rounded face of an octogenarian grandmother.

Most of the ride home in Wade' car was filled with reminiscing on Kim's part; and rapt, giggling agreement by Monique, much to the Loades' relief. Thankfully for Kim's adopted caretakers, the girl was too enraptured with her best friend and the old days to pry in to current events.

Riding in Wade's "car" was still pretty disconcerting for Kim, even after three weeks. It was a car unlike any she was used to being in, and another sign of how out of date she'd become by virtue of leaving and living in the freezer for sixty one years. On the outside, it was essentially an upright roughly square box; and the only way for Kim to tell which was the front and which was the back end was that the front lights were white while the rear ones were red.

The inside was what was really distracting and a little discomforting. The car had a steering wheel, brakes, and an accelerator pedal, but they were there more as an after-thought. All four seats actually faced inwards to the center of the car, mounted on swivels so that each could turn to face the other three. The large panoramic windows were made of the same material as the screen-window found in Kim's hospital room, capable of changing from transparent "glass" to television displays. Wade usually left them clear, much to Kim's unease. She really didn't like, nor was she used to, watching the world go by in anything other than a facing-forward position. Now she routinely saw it go by in either a sideways or backwards fashion, with no one actually controlling the "car."

Wade had explained one day that driving now no a necessity, and was much less a pass-time and more an enthusiasts' hobby. As such, while all cars still had manual controls like steering wheels and brakes and whatnot, they were driven by the computer most of the time. The positive upshot of this was that auto accidents were all but extinct, since the cars didn't get distracted or bored, didn't worry about the weather, and never panicked or made over-corrections. Plus they could see and hear in conditions far beyond what their human occupants could and could react infinitely faster, which meant even in the country and in foul weather, problems were virtually non-existent.

Wade didn't say it, but Kim assumed that if the cars could see in infrared and react in fractions of a second, that deer strikes like the one that had led her to this time and place were also probably a thing of the past. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. It was a fabulous thing, but she couldn't help but feel sick and jealous that such a development had come decades too late for her and daddy.

By the end of the drive, the stress of riding in any auto, especially one which no one was controlling; Kim was again subconsciously rubbing her left temple, caressing the phantom hoof print as she talked with Monique.

A few hours later, as Kim and Monique made their way out for dinner, walking alone, Kim was still rubbing that spot concernedly, "Monique, what can you tell me about where my money came from?"


End file.
